Tales of Mangai: The Chronicle of Lhikan
by Shaymatoran
Summary: The story of the Toa Mangai told though the eyes of Lhikan, from the Kanohi Dragon battle all the way to his transformation into a Turaga, and beyond. All canonical information can be found on BS101. Everything else (Weapons, names, mask powers) are my own creations and interpretations. Enjoy the story and let me know if you like it!
1. Chapter 1

Lhikan stared down over the city, the rush of the wind completely drowning out the sounds that he had grown so used to down in the streets. He never really told anyone about this habit of his, sitting even above Dume, keeping an eye on everything. The only thing this high up was Nivawk, that ungodly pet of the Turaga's, who never ventured much beyond the tower, save for whenever Dume moved throughout the city, almost as if to guard him.

Catching a flash out of the corner of his eye, Lhikan turned to see a blue pillar rising into the sky near the border between Onu and Ko-Metru.

 _Naho can't give me an hour without a break, can she?_

Gripping his board in hand, Lhikan stood and let himself tip forward, pushing off just as he tipped over the edge of the roof, sending him plummeting down the side of the shining building, the sunlight rippling like water off of the metal beneath him. Watching as the ground approached, he slowly pulled the board under him and then rose, his feet locked in, slowly pulling up and flying away from the tower, the wind nearly ripping his mask away as he shot off towards the signal.

Flying along the water, his board glowing as he felt the power coursing through it, he dipped lower and lower until the shell of air around him dipped into the water, sending up a spray behind him. Flying was one of the most foreign things for a Ta-Matoran, but Lhikan never had that trouble. His mind floated back to his youth, when he lived on an island covered in jungle, and the only way around without getting caught up in vines was riding the Gukko birds, whose dives and twists many times had led to a spell of dizziness upon arrival at the destination, but the sheer thrill of it got Lhikan more and more into it, even taming his own Gukko to ride.

Hearing a shout, Lhikan looked up to see a building tumbling over from Onu-Metru, heading directly for him. Pulling up as much as he could, Lhikan felt his board shake under the effort of slowing down enough for him to turn out of the way, followed by the smack of the wave of air as the building plunged into the water. Flying up to where the shout had come from, he saw a group of Po-Matoran, pulling along a cart full of tools.

"Are you alright?" Lhikan stepped off of his board as he reached the ground, kneeling down to see eye-to-eye with the Matoran, who looked very shaken.

"We were called away from repairs in Ko-Metru to look into tremors underneath the Archives when we saw the building start to crumble, and none of us knew what to do, but luckily Onewa over here had the sense to yell out to you, one of the rest of us could even look away," said one of the Matoran, gesturing over to the one who was staring with eyes as big as discs at Lhikan.

"And you, Onewa, are you alright?" Lhikan gently put a hand on the Matoran's shoulder and looked him over.

"Y-yeah I think yeah uhh yes Toa I just-"

"Relax. You just saved my life, so you don't have to look at me like I am a Muaka about to bite your head off."

"Sorry. I just- I- I've never seen you up close before."

"Well I appreciate your wonder, but as you luckily noticed, I was on my way to a place, so if you want to admire me more, it will have to be another time," joked the Toa as he stood, patting Onewa on the head. The Matoran nodded, slightly more composed, and Lhikan hopped back on his board and flew up over the Metru. Onu-Metru was so hard to see, the dark colors of the buildings combined with how packed together they were made the streets almost invisible in the shadows. Peering down, it looked like the streets were rivers of dark water, flowing towards the edges of the city, which he realized must be all the Matoran running away.

Looking back up, Lhikan saw another pillar of water fly up near the city center, followed by a burst of flame that reached almost twice as high. Flying as fast as his board would take him, Lhikan watched in horror as he approached to see the top half of a giant black-and-red Rahi emerging from the Archives, as a torrent of water barreled into it, with seemingly no effect, not even turning its head as it continued to claw its way out of the caves. Flying down to the stream of water, Lhikan hoped off his board and split in into his two swords, charging them up with his elemental power as he came up besides Naho.

"Sister, I do not think you are going to have much of an impact on it at this rate," he said, making the blue Toa jump and the stream wavered, but then resumed with full force.

"Lhikan, that took longer than usual, where have you been?" Naho looked frustrated, her armor covered in dust from the crumbling buildings around her. Turning to Lhikan she cut the stream of water and her shoulders sank. He could tell that she had been at this for some time now, she rarely looked this drained, although she had no apparent injuries.

"I got attacked by a building on my way here, and this one really was moving, not like usual when I just get distracted. Besides that, it appears we have an issue, any idea what this thing is?"

"I heard from some of the Archivists that it is a Kanohi Dragon, a creature that was trapped in a cave beneath the sea some 9,000 years ago, and now apparently it escaped, although it still seems to be quite cold, it looked pretty tired after that burst of flame, so I thought I might be able to subdue it before it got all the way out, but that obviously didn't work."

Lhikan nodded as the creature struggled more to try and escape the tunnels of the Archive, its lower half obviously not designed for small spaces. The thing looked to be as large as many of the taller buildings in the Metru, and, judging from the claw marks digging deep into the ground around it, it was strong enough to level the whole place.

"Got a plan?" Naho looked nervous, the dragon seemed to be making progress out of the tunnels, and there was no way of knowing how dangerous it would be once it was free. Lhikan looked around, but seeing nothing nearby that would help, he figured they would have to rely on their strength alone.

"Screw it, if we can't hurt it maybe we can drive it back into the caves of we startle it enough. Naho, I want you to shoot a stream after me when I get close to its face, and I think I know how to get it to back off." Getting a running start, Lhikan fit his swords back together into a board and flew up towards the beast, which was steadily emerging from the caves now, the tremors collapsing many surrounding buildings, but the rahi paid them no mind, not even when some fell onto its back.

"Now Naho!" Lhikan neared the face of the dragon and looked it right in its glowing red eyes as he channeled the power inside of him and felt his body begin to radiate heat. As the stream of water approached, he released his energy in a blast which hit the water right in front of the beast's eyes, turning it to steam, which provoked a roar from the beast.

The steam clouded up the air around Lhikan, and he tried to peer through, but was met with the head of the beast shooting through the steam, smashing into him and throwing him from his board and sending him rocketing down towards the buildings below.

Turning as he fell, Lhikan used the last of his consciousness to send the remaining power he had to his mask, and a shimmering light enveloped him as he smashed through a warehouse and then bounced off of the next building and his power failed as he finally slammed into the pavement in an alleyway, and his vision began to fade when he saw a pair of feet step into the alley and a strange energy began to flow through his body.

"Hey you, quite the fall you had there, everything alright?" Lhikan looked up to see a dark green Toa standing over him, his mask glowing. He tried to get up, but the Toa bent down and stopped him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, you still have quite a few injuries, just give me a second and you should be all fixed up." The Toa looked over Lhikan and more energy flowed through him, pooling in the places where he felt the most pain and flushing it away.

"Who are you?" Lhikan managed to prop himself up onto his elbows to get a better look at the new arrival, whose armor appeared to be organic, rather than made from proteomic.

"Yeah figured that would be good to know, the name's Inaku, I came from an island nearby, our turaga sent me after his old pal Dume called for help. Oh! Yeah umm I know you are kinda in the middle of a fight right now but we really need to get to your turaga as fast as we can, he is probably in trouble." Inaku helped him up as they heard another roar, and saw the dragon rising up from the rubble, now airborne.

"Let's go then, I have a feeling we are going to have to deal with that later," Lhikan said, looking around for his board.

"Looking for this?" Naho appeared behind the two toa, holding Lhikan's board. "You dropped it when you got head-butted, you were lucky it couldn't see you or you would have gotten swallowed whole."

"Thanks for the encouragement, I often find narrowly avoiding being eaten to be one of my greatest skills," remarked Lhikan with an eye roll. He had the two other toa grab onto him as the three flew off towards the Coliseum.

Nearing the shining pillar, they flew up towards Dume's throne room, where one of the windows had been smashed in, and Lhikan could see three large figures standing within. He flew to just below the windows, making sure to stay out of sight, and then prepared to help the other two up. Giving a boost to Inaku, Naho jumped up herself and Lhikan floated away, trying to figure out the best way to enter the situation.

He watched as Naho and Inaku climbed in through the window, silently hiding behind two pillars. Lihkan waved for them to move around the side, as he aimed himself right for one of the three figures and then flew into the room at full speed, his board slamming into the back of the biggest of the three, knocking the black figure into the wall where vines quickly grew over him and Inaku ran over, holding a rapier to the throat of what appeared to be a black Skakdi, as Naho grabbed another by the neck with her whip, another Skakdi, but this one blue.

Lhikan turned to face the third figure, another Skakdi, but saw the brown figure step aside to reveal Dume trapped in a cage of stone seemingly formed from the ground around him.

"Stand down or the turaga never leaves this room alive," boomed the brown Skakdi. Lhikan kneeled and set his blades down in front of him, standing up with his hands above his head.

"Let the turaga go and we will do the same for your companions," Lhikan said, lowering his hands, one slightly behind his back, which he let all his power flow to.

"My companions and I have one mission and we intend to finish it, and that is to establish a base on this island for the Dark Hunters, and in return we will protect you and the island, starting with that dragon." The Skakdi gestured out the window as the dragon flew over the city, headed in the direction of Ta-Metru. "You toa alone stand no chance to stop it, but with my help, as well as my friends Rediak and Vezok, we will make short work of the beast."

Lhikan stared out the window for a moment longer, before he caught a glimpse of a shadow moving, and saw another figure looking at him, with a finger to his mouth. Lhikan turned back to face the brown Skakdi and nodded solemnly.

"So be it, I see we have no other choice. I, Toa Lhikan, surrender." Lhikan made a grand gesture of kneeling, trying to draw more attention to himself as he watched the other figure move in the shadows. "What shall I do in order to appease your demands?" The brown Skakdi smiled even wider, its blindingly white teeth shining.

"You are wise, o Toa Lhikan. Now rise and face me, Avak." Lhikan did as he said, and saw the face of the other figure appear over the shoulder of Avak, and a glimmer as a blade slipped out from the shadows and around the neck of the Skakdi.

"I think he is quite wise, after all, he was smart enough to keep you occupied for me," hissed the figure, whose blade was now pressed against Avak's neck. "I thought a Skakdi would know by now to always watch his back, but apparently you forgot even that." Avak growled in frustration, then made a quick movement and spun, turning to grab onto the figure, but he disappeared as fast as he had appeared.

Lhikan took this as his chance, kicking his blades as hard as he could, sending them flying towards Avak, who narrowly dodged them, but Lhikan rammed into him at full force, holding him up against the wall with one hand, the other holding a fireball burning blue-white with pure heat.

"Leave! If I ever catch any of you on this island again-" Lhikan brought the fireball closer and closer to Avak's face and then smashed it into the wall right next to his head "-I won't miss." He released the Skakdi and gestured for the other two to release their captives as well. The three quickly scrambled away and out the window, the cage around the turaga crumbling to dust as they did.

"Toa Lhikan, you arrived just in time, I fear they would not have let me stall much longer." Dume stood up, brushing bits of the dust off of his robes.

"I would not have made it if not for Inaku here, he was the one who let me know you were in danger." The turaga turned to look at the green Toa, who was sheathing their rapier in a sheath of vines at their waist.

"You must have been sent by Turaga Okama, I assume?" Dume walked over to the Toa and shook their hand. "She never did want to leave me here alone, I cannot blame her for sending you here on such short notice, I am only glad she picked up on my call for help, I did not know if her Suletu was still strong enough to hear me this far away. Inaku laughed, and shook the Turaga's hand with vigor.

"She has been meditating constantly, tapping into the flow of energies across the world, she appears to be able to hear thoughts from farther away than ever, which is good for helping me find trouble quicker, but is also putting me through quite a workout running all over the place. I am just glad that I was sent to the right place, the Matoran who gave me a ride here seemed very unsure of where they were going."

"I am glad we are all having a happy reunion, but where did that other toa go?" Naho was looking around the room, and Lhikan too wondered where they had gone.

"I assume you are referring to me," said the same serpentine voice as the other toa stepped out from the shadows, seeming materializing from thin air. "I had been trailing those Dark Hunters for some time, and decided to step in and make sure things didn't get out of hand. His armor speared much lighter than before, and the green Voltiak on his face explained his stealth easily enough. Still though, Lhikan felt slightly uneasy towards the toa, as if faced with an old enemy.

He shook it off and approached the green figure, reaching out his hand.

"Welcome to Metru Nui, brother, I am grateful you were here to help."

"Nidhiki," replied the toa, turning away from Lhikan and facing Dume. "I noticed you have an infestation and I would like your permission to go after it, and exterminate it." Dume nodded, stroking his cane.

"Turaga, I do not think it is wise for someone," Naho interjected, turning to face Nidhiki, "no matter how skilled, to go after this beast alone." She turned back to the Turaga and continued. "Lhikan and I tried to take it on by ourselves and I fear Lhikan would not still be alive if not for Inaku's healing skills. Sending one toa out there is suicide-"

"I think what my friend is trying to say, Turaga," interrupted Lhikan, "is that we should all go together. If we can handle three Dark Hunters without a single injury, we stand a much better chance of going up against his beast together, as a team." Lhikan looked at the other toa, Naho and Inaku nodding in approval, while Nidhiki huffed and crossed his arms, but offered no opposition.

"Lhikan, I think that is a brilliant idea, but I know this beast," said Dume, going into his storytelling voice that Lhikan knew so well. "When I first visited this island, my whole team was nearly wiped out in trying to imprison it the first time. You will need more than a few toa to take it on. Let me handle gathering more help for you, and you all in the meantime go scout out ahead, make sure the Matoran are safe. Do not make any moves until you hear from me to go ahead, or I fear the consequences." Lhikan and the others nodded, and they turned to each other, save for Nidhiki, who had slipped away and with a gust of wind flew out the window.

"Inaku, you and Naho go find someplace safe for her to stay, and Naho I want you to scout out ahead with your mask to try and help Inaku find Matoran in need of help. I will go on ahead to try and make sure our new brother doesn't make any stupid moves without us, and to figure out what this dragon is trying to do." The other two toa looked at each other and then headed out the window, Naho creating a layer of water for them to slide down on. Lhikan grabbed his board out of where it had stuck into the wall, and prepared to head out as well, when he felt the turaga's cane around his leg.

"Lhikan, I need you to lead this team, it is something long overdue for this city, we need protectors. We need Mangai." Lhikan nodded slowly, all the memories of his past experience on a team flooding back to him. "Do not think of your failures. There was no way you could have stopped what happened from happening. This is your duty, to the Matoran, and to me. Do not let the demons of your past stop you from your destiny." Dume looked up at the toa, and Lhikan gathered himself.

"I will not let you down, turaga." He stepped onto his board and hovered out of the window, turning to face Ta-Metru, and speeding off

 _I won't let anyone down again._


	2. Chapter 2

_The cries of toa rang out around him as Likhan scrambled for cover, rolling out of the way just as a Rhotuka hit behind him, sending him flying into a rack of armor, which them collapsed on top of him, sending weapons scattering across the floor and catching the attention of one of the Frostelus, who turned and looked at Likhan, before a hand grabbed its leg and tried to bring it down, but the rahi paid it little mind, stabbing clean through the arm of the toa who had grabbed it._

"Lhikan!" Nidhiki shook Lhikan out of his memories and suddenly the heat came flooding over him, and he snapped back to the present.

"Sorry, just…planning."

"Can you maybe share some of this planning with me?" Nidhiki looked out the window of the small room they were holed up in, checking again to see if the dragon was coming.

"Oh so now you want to follow my plan, what happened to the great toa-hero who can take out the dragon all on his own," Likhan quipped. Nidhiki completely ignored him, and kept looking out the window. "Okay fine. So we have no idea where Naho and Inaku are, and we have been holed up here for the past week trying to get closer to the dragon, which you can't sneak up on because 1) you can't handle the heat in the furnace and 2) even if you did sneak up on it, your scythe can't actually do any damage to the thing. Our only real plan is to wait for help, because I can't do much of anything until my leg heals."

"I told you I was sorry, okay? You didn't have to come rushing in to save me." Nidhiki left the window and fell to sitting against the wall opposite to Lhikan. "You should have left me there."

"I never leave a toa behind. You are no exception, although I admit I really wanted to after your behavior this far. We will never make a good team if you don't start acting like you are a part of it, which you are, believe it or not."

"You know a lot about being on a team, so it seems, what happened to your old one?" Nidhiki still couldn't look Lhikan in the eyes, rather he was fiddling with the handle of his scythe. Lhikan took a deep breath and tried to stop the memories from coming back, but was plunged back in.

 _Lhikan crawled out from under the weapons and ran back into the interior of the fortress, trying to get out of the courtyard where the conflict was the most intense. Running down the hallway, he saw a few toa scattered like leaves along the floor, armor shattered. He reached the end of the hallway and looked out the window to see more and more Frostelus crawling up the walls into the fortress from the iceberg that had appeared the night before. He heard heavy footsteps behind him and spun, suddenly face to face with a large figure._

Shaking his head to clear his mind, Lhikan took several deep breaths and looked up to see Nidhiki looking at him, concerned.

"You have done that twice now; do I have to worry about that happening in battle?"

"No."

"Are you sure, I only want to- "

"I SAID I WAS FINE!" Lhikan flew to his feet, his body instinctively radiating heat as his fists heated up, before he felt his leg give out and he crumpled to the ground, hitting his head against the wall as he went.

"I didn't mean to… I'm sorry." Nidhiki helped Lhikan back to sitting against the wall, and continued to watch over him still with the same concerned expression.

"Listen. The last time I was on a team- " Lhikan closed his eyes and tried to calm his mind "- it didn't end well. You heard about the Toa Fortress on the islands east of Xia?

"Wait, but nobody made it out of there after the- "

"I did. I was a new toa there, sent for training. I had just been given a Toa Stone by Dume after he said the stars had chosen me to be his successor on Metru Nui, and so I had to obey, he was a toa and he had already saved my life, so I owed it to him. I went off as fast as I could to my islands Kini Nui and I transformed, and within the week I was sent off to the fortress to be trained. I trained for several years there, perfecting my elemental powers and learning how to channel them through my sword."

"Only one?" Nidhiki was now intently listening to the story, but still fiddled with his scythe. Lhikan looked down at his two blades and ran his fingers over the carvings he had done on them.

"These were…given to me. I had a friend back in the fortress- "

 _"Lhikan, you need to leave," said the massive toa of air. He pressed the board into Lhikan's hands and punched through the window. "We don't have much time, fly to the other tower and grab the Makoki Stone, then get out of here. Someone needs to live to tell what happened here, and we must get that stone off the island safely. Now go!" The air toa sent out a burst of wind that carried Lhikan and the board out the window and Lhikan, gripping the board as hard as he could, fearing he might fall, turned to see his friend waving him off, before a blade shot through his neck and he was pulled out of sight._

"Hey, you are here, don't let that stuff come up. You are stronger than your memories." Lhikan struggled to come back to reality and saw that Nidhiki was now kneeling beside him, his hand on Lhikan's shoulder. "Growing up where I did, we had lots of hard times. A lot of my friends died, and most of the ones that lived had this same problem. We all have these thoughts, buried down deep so they can't hurt us, but you can't let them control you."

"Thank you…brother," whispered Lhikan as he pressed the memories away. "I lost too many good toa that day. Too many friends. One of them saved my life with these," he said, gesturing to the blades, "and then he died as I was helpless to save him. I couldn't even complete the mission he gave me, the item I was supposed to take had already been stolen. I failed everyone on that island, they all died in vain because of me." Lhikan felt the emotions wash over him and he began to sob, everything from that day replayed over and over every instant until he felt nothing, and the crying stopped.

"You are still here, and if not for that, I would likely be a stain on the claws of that dragon right now. To me, they didn't die in vain because they saved you, and you saved me, and I am sure you have saved many others, so to this city, their sacrifice was the best thing that could have happened. I know it hurts, losing people. But if you can't accept that as a leader of a Toa team, you will never succeed."

"Thank you…" Lhikan could barely talk, his mind felt like fog, unable to think or feel anything. All he could feel was pain all over his head as if the memories had physically hurt him. "I think I just need some time to come back to reality."

"I don't think that dragon is coming anywhere near here for a while, so take your time." Nidhiki stood and headed back over to the window, where he pulled up a stool and kept lookout. A few hours passed, Lhikan trying to use his leg more and more, but the cut from the dragon's claw was still not healing, the burn did not help it either. Just as he was adapting to it and successfully walking across the room a few times, he was knocked flat on his back by a black blur that seemingly came out of nowhere.

Nidhiki shot to his feet, scythe in hand, but whatever had been in the room was gone. Lhikan crawled over and grabbed his swords, sliding up the wall to his feet and bracing himself against it so he could be ready to fight.

"Lhikan! Nidhiki! Are you in there?" Naho's voice yelled from somewhere outside, and Nidhiki looked out the window to see her, Inaku, and a black toa all standing at the door of the building.

"Lhikan is hurt, we were just attacked, you guys should watch out, Nidhiki relayed, still tensed up behind his scythe. The black toa laughed at this, and then suddenly disappeared, only to reappear in the room with them with a gust of wind.

"That would have been me, terribly sorry for the bump I gave you, checking this many buildings got so repetitive that I didn't realize anyone was in here until after I was already out the door and actually processed I hit someone." He turned to Lhikan, who had lowered his blades, but was still leaning against the wall. He gestured to Lhikan's leg. "I hope that wasn't me, was it?" Lhikan shook his head as Naho and Inaku came up the stairs behind the black toa.

"Pardon the newbie, his name is Voma and he is still getting used to things. How long did you say you have been a toa?"

"About a week."

"Exactly," remarked Naho, as she made her way over to Lhikan. "Hey Inaku, how much do you know about claw marks this size?"

"Enough to fix that pretty quick, but I would suggest sitting down," said Inaku as they came over to help Lhikan back to sitting on the floor, then concentrating and their mask began to glow as Lhikan again felt the energy flowing into him, this time stinging more at the cut, and he grimaced in pain. "Sorry about that, cuts can be a hard time, especially ones this deep." Inaku continued as Naho made her way over to the window, looking out over the Metru.

"We found the dragon, it is in the Great Furnace, which it seems to like a lot, and hasn't left since it arrived, which made our job easy. Only bad thing is, it feeds off heat, so the longer it is there, the more powerful it gets. We need to take it down sooner rather than later, but we keep running into the same issue. None of us can hurt it, especially me down here, I can barely use my powers at all. I heard that more toa should be arriving tonight, Dume told us that they would be the last ones, but there will be six of them, so we will have plenty of support, and if we attack at night, we can possibly catch the dragon while it is sleeping, and take it out nice and easy."

"You make it sound like we haven't been defeated every time we go near it," quipped Nidhiki. Naho sighed and Inaku patted her on the shoulder, giving her a comforting smile.

"If we work together," said Lhikan as he rose, testing out his leg again, "we can definitely succeed, especially with the help of other toa. We can manage this, and we will." Lhikan stood tall again, his strength fully returned. "All we need to do is work together and compensate for each other's strengths and weaknesses. Our first priority should be making our way to meet the new toa who are joining us, where did you say they were coming in?"

"Le-Metru, should be getting in within the next few hours, so if we leave now we should catch them in time," said Naho, who was looking visibly happier after Lhikan's speech.

"I can scout ahead if you like, make sure the path is clear so we don't end up taking a wrong turn and ending up at a pile of rubble blocking the street," added Voma. He looked very lean for a Toa of Earth, but Lhikan gave him permission, and he shot out of the building in a streak. The rest followed on foot, making their way through the ruined Metru.

The heat was much more unbearable than usual, probably because none of the workers were around to control the flames like normal, and it's not like the dragon would want to cool off. Buildings were crushed all around, the dragon apparently took its sweet time actually getting to the furnace, leveling half of the Metru, and not every Matoran had made it out, as Lhikan could tell from the broken masks and occasional hand sticking out from the rubble.

The toa finally left the heat of the Metru after about an hour, without finding any survivors. The motivation from Lhikan's speech had all but died off, everyone much quieter, and Nidhiki going back to his usual cold self, walking slightly behind the rest of the group. Lhikan tried to keep his head up, but all the bodies they had seen on the trip to Le-Metru had left him feeling hopeless. Countless lives had been lost, and they had been unable to do anything to stop it. Naho and Inaku looked most defeated, seeing all those they had failed to save.

Heading towards the docks, night fell as the suns disappeared, casting the city into a glow with the lights from Le-Metru still shining bright, although Lhikan could barely stand to look back at Ta-Metru, which was completely dark save for the firey glow of the furnace. He remembered all the time he had spent there when he had first arrived, trying to get more in touch with his element in such a new place. He had met with the mask-makers and crafters, and slowly honed his elemental prowess until it became what it was today, and many of the Matoran who had helped him were now probably buried under hundreds of tons of stone.

The waves lapped gently at the docks as the group arrived, and they sat, waiting for the boat to come in. Nobody talked much, Lhikan and Naho siting at the end of the dock watching the water, while Lhikan could hear the pacing of Voma, accompanied by the exasperated sighs of Nidhiki.

"Lhikan, can you hold on to me for a minute? I am going to see if I can't look ahead for them," said Naho, and Lhikan obliged, putting his arm around her to hold her as she went completely limp and cold.

"Woah, is she okay?" Voma had come up besides Lhikan and was looking at Naho's seemingly lifeless body. Inaku chuckled and stepped forward, their armor covered in flowering vines. Lhikan had wondered what their power was, and this was a beautiful display of it, the vines covered in light blue flowers decorating the armor as if it had been carved in. He caught himself staring at the vines and brought his gaze up to meet Inaku's, and looked down in apology. Inaku smiled at this and then turned to Voma.

"She wears the Iden, the great mask of spirit. She is still fine; she is just exploring while leaving her body behind. So long as she is in that form she cannot be seen or heard, or even touched. Only issue is her body is left behind, and so it can certainly be destroyed, but just so long as her body is safe, she is safe." Inaku said, kneeling down beside Naho's body. They looked over her, and suddenly her eyes snapped open with a gasp.

"Well this is new! I assume you are the welcoming party? I didn't expect us to get so close so soon," said Naho, winking at Lhikan, as her head rested in his lap. She sat up and looked around at the group, as if for the first time.

"Naho, is that you?" Inaku looked at her, a questioning look on his face.

"Oh yeah! That's who I must have passed! Nononono. I just happen to share the same mask as this lovely toa, which means we can swap bodies and powers and such, it's a fun deal, but I had never gotten a chance to try it. I assume my body will be showing up soon, along with the rest of the toa you requested. My name is Tupu, Toa of Stone, native of Nyrnah, or at least I have lived there all my life, growing up learning from the best crafters in the world, if I do say so myself."

Lhikan pushed the toa up off of his lap. "As much as we appreciate your arrival, I have a feeling Naho will be none too happy about you taking her body, so would you mind giving it back?" Tupu laughed and nodded.

"Yes of course. I apologize, I was scouting ahead to make sure we weren't lost when I found a body I could get into. Let me handle that for you." He stood up tall and then closed his eyes, and Naho's body crumpled to the ground, Lhikan and Nidhiki both rushing to try and catch it. They bumped into each other and Nidhiki seemed to teleport away with how fast he moved back. It seemed unlike him to help someone for their own sake, but Lhikan shrugged it off and looked back down at Naho, who once again opened her eyes and this time jumped to her feet and turned towards the sea, where a wave formed and then crashed, near a far-off light.

The water began to stir up beneath the dock, and two tendrils of water rose and swirled around Naho's legs as she channeled her power. A wave began rushing at ridiculous speeds towards the dock, growing larger and larger until it stopped just before it, with a brown figure trapped inside the water. Naho moved the wave over the dock and Lhikan watched as the wave crashed down, bringing the figure inside of it slamming down onto the dock with a resounding smack.

"Touch my body again and you will wind up at the bottom of that sea in an instant," she said, tendrils of water wrapping around her body and making her seem much larger and more imposing than normal, and Lhikan found himself unsettled by just how powerful she seemed at times.

"That is one helluva toa, let me tell you, do not let this one off on her own, people are bound to get killed," said the brown figure, who Lhikan suspected must be Tupu. His armor was very simple in build, but it had carvings and designs all over it that made it look so much more intricate. Rising to his feet, the toa brushed himself off. "Also, darling, I would love to take you up on that whole free diving offer, but I have a bit of an issue, see, I sink like a stone in water." Naho scoffed at this, but Likhan could see she was holding back a smile. Something about this toa made the whole team seem a little brighter, and Lhikan was glad for it. The only outlier was Nidhiki, who was still standing off to the size, looking the new arrival up and down, like he was dinner.

"Welcome to the team. Glad to have you here in your own body," Lhikan said, reaching out a hand to Tupu. The toa gladly accepted the handshake and pulled Lhikan in for a hug, giving him a solid smack on the back. The sound of a motor whirred behind him, and Likhan broke the hug off after about five seconds to turn and look as the boat carrying the other toa approached, all of them standing with weapons drawn.

"Brothers! And Tuyet. Welcome to Metru Nui, my friends," announced Tupu, which was met with exasperated sighs from everyone on the boat.


End file.
